Heart implants found to be effective

Published Sunday May 19, 2013 at 8:00 am

FITCHBURG — A study funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that cardiac defibrillators implanted in patients at high risk for heart attack — devices manufactured by Arrhythmia Research Technology Inc. of Fitchburg — were found to be most effective in predicting heart attacks.

The study tested the efficacy of 10 electrocardiography tests on 484 high-risk heart patients and found that the ART technology, in combination with Holter types of testing, were the most effective of all the ECG tests conducted.

The ART technology, called signal-averaged electrocardiography, with with Holter recordings, was able to successfully monitor patients for irregular heartbeats, which are predictive of heart attacks, according to the study's authors.

The study was conducted by Dr. Wojciech Zareba of the University of Rochester, and included patients from 22 major cardiac centers, including UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

"These findings may pave the way for more targeted implantation of ICDs (implantable cardiac defibrillators) in heart attack patients that are most likely to develop potentially lethal ventricular arrhythmias, and hence benefit from the ICD implant," Dr. Zareba said in a prepared statement.